So - picking up on our post from the other day. I stated not to go to law school if your goal is to earn lots of money. Any decent lawyer will tell you this.
So - what's wrong with going to law school to become a lawyer to earn lots of $$$? There is nothing wrong with earning money. Anyone who looks at my Facebook rants knows that I am a huge libertarian and if your goal in life is to make money, I have no problems with that goal. Everyone has the right to maximize his own utility.
The issue with becoming a lawyer because your primary goal is to make money is that you have no idea (until you become a lawyer) the amount of work involved. Let me make this clear: if you are a lawyer in private practice and you want to earn a good salary, you will be working a minimum of 80 hours per week. And only half of that will be "doing law" (a/k/a being able to work on projects for which you can charge clients for your time). The rest will be the cost of doing business - running your law practice like a business, which it is.
Which is something they will not teach you in law school - being a lawyer is a BUSINESS. You have to account for your hours, you have to have a budget for marketing, an office, website, equipment, etc. You need to pay employees. You need to have insurance. The list goes on.
So - what's wrong with going to law school to become a lawyer to earn lots of $$$? There is nothing wrong with earning money. Anyone who looks at my Facebook rants knows that I am a huge libertarian and if your goal in life is to make money, I have no problems with that goal. Everyone has the right to maximize his own utility.
The issue with becoming a lawyer because your primary goal is to make money is that you have no idea (until you become a lawyer) the amount of work involved. Let me make this clear: if you are a lawyer in private practice and you want to earn a good salary, you will be working a minimum of 80 hours per week. And only half of that will be "doing law" (a/k/a being able to work on projects for which you can charge clients for your time). The rest will be the cost of doing business - running your law practice like a business, which it is.
Which is something they will not teach you in law school - being a lawyer is a BUSINESS. You have to account for your hours, you have to have a budget for marketing, an office, website, equipment, etc. You need to pay employees. You need to have insurance. The list goes on.
Being a lawyer is being a businessman. Pure and simple. However, your "business" is the practice of law which means you have to be not only a good lawyer, but a good businessman as well. You need to live in the world of a businessperson and the world of law. You are working two jobs and THIS is where the 80 hours a week comes in.
Consider this, therefore: you are working two jobs, full time. If you work two full time jobs, you will most probably have a good income no matter what. Working as a lawyer to get rich, therefore, means that you are working two full time jobs. When you do the math, you will see that making money as a lawyer is a huge investment of time. Doesn't seem so easy to "get rich" now, does it?
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